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Letter from Dean of Students Glen T. Nygreen to Dana VanGilder, President of the Alpha Delt Pi Sorority at the University of Washington, placing the sorority on social probation, June 9, 1953

In 1854, territorial governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, suggested that a university for Washington Territory be established. The school did not officially open until November 4, 1861 with 30 students. In 1862, the Washington territorial legislature incorporated the school and appointed a Board of Regents. Throughout the university's early years, the university consisted not only of college curricula but also preparatory school curricula. The school faced constant changes in administration, enrollment and financial support in its first twenty years, often closing due to lack of students or funds. By the 1890s, the school had grown by leaps and bounds and exceeded the size of its original campus. A graduate of the school and later professor, Edmond Meany, served as head of a committee to choose a new site off of Union Bay, further north and east of its current site. In 1895, the school formally moved to this new campus. In 1902, the school numbered about 600 students but by 1913, there were about 3,340 students. From 1915 to 1926, Henry Suzzallo served as the University's president during which time the school underwent massive changes in new building construction.

The early responsibilities of the University of Washington Dean of Women largely comprised enforcing rules (mostly social restrictions) designed for women only, such as early closure and visitation restrictions in women's dormitories. In the 1960s, under the leadership of Dean of Women Dorothy Strawn, the University of Washington became one of the first large universities to eliminate a separate set of regulations for women. By 1970, when the Dean of Women post was eliminated, the office of the Dean of Women was initiating and directing programs that were grounded in the feminist ideas of the 1960s. When the Office was disbanded in September 1970, both its function and incumbent Dean were organizationally relocated to the Women's Programs Division of Continuing Education, which became the Women's Studies Office. Dorothy Strawn was the last Dean of Women in 1970, and the first Director of Women's Studies.